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Welcome to the launch of Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues (Episode 1)! After a successful Kickstarter and several years of amazing open development with our community we are finally ready to leave Early Access! The launch build (aka Release 52) goes live this Tuesday, March 27, at 10:30 AM US Central Daylight Time (15:30 UTC).

Release 52 is the third, and final, release in which we focused on the current iteration of our Top 10 Priorities for Launch (from Q1 2018 post). Once again, we were able to address almost every single item on that list in some fashion. We made incredibly strong progress on performance, player direction, story polish, enemy behaviors, and UI polish. We also finished more physical goods, including the certificates and runic card. Simultaneous to all of this, we had our launch event and participated in SXSW with a booth and numerous talks.

Performance: Changes to code and assets continued our steady forward progress on performance improvements. The biggest change for Release 52 was moving to a new terrain shader and migrating several scenes to that shader. These changes should show an increase of at least several frames per second in each of the migrated scenes. Significant progress was made on addressing memory leaks and unneeded allocations this release. This should help slow the memory growth of the client, reduce hitching, and also boost performance in high stress situations like party combat versus multiple enemies.

Companions: The three companions of Truth, Love, and Courage are now in the game with unique art and conversations. In Offline Mode, they will accompany you on your adventures and comment on those adventures along the way.

New Scenes: We continue to forge ahead on rebuilding scenes that were previously cloned from other scenes. In Release 52, we uncloned two more adventure scenes— South Boundless Forest and Blood River Forest—and we uncloned the town of Northwood. We also replaced North Quel Woods with a new shardfall, named Quel Shardfall, which was a result of the month-long meteor shower.

Story Polish and Side Quests: We continue to polish the story with additional side quests, balance, and conversation additions. The biggest change this release was new rules for spawning in Offline Mode, allowing players to clear out scenes of enemies. We also added several new side quests, including quests for the final virtue banners.

Multiple Characters: Eligible players will now be able to have multiple characters on a single account. Note that these characters will share virtue and will have a common bank account. Characters will also share guild membership and land ownership ( including lot access permissions and rentals).

Heraldry: Players will be able to create heraldry through a blazon generator (or direct image upload) that can be displayed on shields, tabard chest pieces, and banners in game.

Combat Polish and Balance: We spent a huge amount of time on combat balance and polish with over 40 individual changes and additions in Release 52 alone. Updates include new reward blessings, new skills (Valiant Warden & Chaos Shield), Malefic Liches, Dragon Wing Gust attack, experience point rebalance, VFX polish, hotkeys for swapping between 10 combat decks, and lots of bug fixes.

I want to express a huge amount of gratitude to the players who tested the items listed below on our QA server. They found many bugs and also provided editorial feedback on this post so that it is easy to read and actually matches what is in the game.

Before offering feedback and/or reporting a bug, we kindly ask that you read this whole message and the linked Player Instructions and Known Issues to get up to date on the current game state. To keep up to date, please check out the Patch Notes.

By taking a few moments to read through this information, a great deal of our time and effort can be focused on new “unanswered” questions and addressing critical issues that impact each release. We greatly appreciate you taking the time to review this post and for all the truly valuable feedback you continue to provide.

Also, remember that while we are providing new content with each release, our community is also working overtime to make new events for you to enjoy. Be sure to check the schedule for player-run events (via the player-run websites: NBNN Community Calendar and Events of the Avatars). You can also get the latest official events on the Main Website.

Without further ado, here is a list of what you can expect to see in Release 52.

Key:

Plain Text: The original plan for the Release deliverables from the Q1 2018 Schedule Update. We intentionally preserve the original text so that our backers can compare plan versus actuals.

Italics: Detailed notes of what was actually delivered.

Strikethrough: These are items that did not make the release (but are still planned).

RELEASE 52, March 27, 2018 <LAUNCH CANDIDATE>Note that R52 launch date is a Tuesday vs. a Thursday due to Easter weekend.

Story: We will continue to work on adding side quests and polish to the Paths of Truth, Love, and Courage. We’ll continue to add and update maps for the in-game map system. Additionally, we’ll continue doing polish work focused specifically on the starting scenes. Finally, some adventure scenes in various regions of Novia will be rebuilt from scratch.

Companions: In Release 30, we introduced the first companion, Fiona Fitzowen, who was the archetype of the principle of Love. Our intent has always been to follow her introduction with at least two other companions who would represent the other principles, Truth and Courage, along with unique art for these pivotal characters. For Release 52, we are excited for not only adding the companions of Truth and Courage, but for also giving these characters unique art! The companions support avatars in Offline mode by accompanying them on their adventures. They comment on where the player goes during the main quest and will even talk to each other on occasion. Please note that while these characters appear in Novia for everyone, they will only accompany avatars in Offline Mode.

Companion of Courage: Conrad Dupre, Knight of Norgard. Conrad’s lineage is that of a soldier’s soldier. He has fought under the banner of Valhold for his entire life—from his childhood as a squire, to a dissolute noble, to the years of struggle against the Kobolds (a race which he both respects and despises). In addition to his mastery of swords, shields, and heavy armor, he has a veteran’s knowledge of Life magic—not a great deal, but enough to keep himself and those around him fighting when others would fall. Most who know him also respect him, for he has little tolerance for cowardice or fear. But if he has any failing, he also has little of a knight’s respect for those under his care. Norgard is at war, and he will brook no weakness in its time of greatest peril. Conrad knows much of the martial arts, but unlike his impeccably-forged sword Silverthorn, the heart of his courage still requires tempering. Avatars will meet him early on in their journey through the Path of Courage, in the fortified garrison of Resolute.

Companion of Truth: Ariel Rosehaven. One of Novia’s most learned scholars, Ariel has been walking the path of Truth longer than many have been alive. Not one for being kept in the cloisters of a library, she will think nothing of taking up her quarterstaff and a bindle filled with a few of her beloved books and going to test in the field what others are content to merely argue about from safe confines. She has studied alongside Kobold technicians and Elven lorespeakers (racism being one of the many things that will cause her to ‘lecture’) and her knowledge of magic is second to few. When she heard that an outlander had been seen at the site of an elven massacre, of course she had to meet this person and take their measure. What happens next is hard to predict. Many have underestimated the unassuming older woman in a cloak and quarterstaff, and learned that the truth is not always what it seems. “NEVER ask a lady her age, or her past. Or anything else she is unlikely to tell you.” The Avatar will meet Ariel Rosehaven in Aerie. It simply is not up for discussion.

Companion of Love: Fiona Fitzowen. Fiona is a bard in every sense of the word—a master of the lute, someone who will usually sing a song when prompted (and often when not) and, without fail, will have something to say about the situation she finds herself in (and she seems to find herself in many) which will infuriate some and entertain more. Fiona is not one for fighting, but does keep a triple crossbow ready when necessary (or when on the road and hunger beckons). She knows a smattering of magical arts, but like most travelling bards, just enough to be amusing. Many claim to have stolen Fiona’s heart; it is an illusion she is happy to perpetuate. In fact, if you ask who her current love is, she will quickly change the subject. For someone who makes a living at telling stories, that is a tale she is not yet willing to tell. She is drawn to the Avatar, but not in the romantic way everyone assumes. But… that is a tale she is better off spinning. Fiona can usually be found in Peladjar’s Tavern in Ardoris, singing for her lodging and her amusement.

Companion Resurrection: If a companion dies during combat you can use the summoning whistle to bring them back to life.

Companions Power and Leveling: The relative power of the companions should now better match the player and will properly level with the player. We also fixed some issues with the abilities and skills the companions were using that were causing some animation issues.

Path of the Oracle Underground Paths: We added clues to the alternate underground paths that bypass the Ruins PvP areas to all eight journal entries related to gathering the pages of the prophecy. “Although the ruins are in an area outside the protection of the Oracle, rumors exist of underground passages into the ruins of the old world that can bypass this…”

Offline Spawning Rules: When playing in Offline Mode, we now have a separate set of rules for how creature spawning works. In many maps, it is now possible to clear out all of the enemies while you are in the scene and they will no longer respawn unless you reload the scene. For example, you could clear an underground area and then mine peacefully (while the resource nodes continue to respawn). We may even expand this further in the future, having some scenes never respawn enemies even if you leave and return to the scene.

Visitors Choose Your Path Fix: The option to override the Oracle test in the Isle of Storms and manually choose your path has been fixed for Free Trial users (aka Visitors).

Scene Rebuilds: The following scenes were previously clones of other adventure scenes but were completely rebuilt for this release.

Quel Shardfall (formerly North Quel Woods): The great Cataclysm from the shattering of the two moons happened hundreds of years ago and showered the land with meteors. The largest shards created huge areas of devastation called shardfalls. The influence of the Oracle is weak in these areas and Outlanders can slay each other at will (making it an Open PvP zone). After months of meteor showers one particularly large shard has been approaching steadily and has finally crashed. The latest shardfall has obliterated North Quel Woods, and the Quel Shardfall has appeared in its place. Unlike other shardfalls that are hundreds of years old, this shardfall is so fresh that the ground is on fire, the air is thick with electricity that periodically discharges (ouch!), lava flows in places, and the amount of floating shards is staggering. The devastation of this new shardfall has exposed an ancient crypt, corrupting the resident lich and transforming him into a unique Obsidian Lich who uses Chaos Magic (much like the Chaos Daemon). Slaying the Obsidian Lich can reward you with a unique Obsidian Lich Helm.

Northwood: The town of Northwood is beyond the grasslands far north of Brittany, near the western coast of Spindrift Bay in the North Paladis region. Rumors are spreading that the town boasts some remarkable similarities to locations on Earth known as Britannia Manor and Castleton, but surely that must be coincidence? Northwood was originally based on the Forest 02 POT template but has been rebuilt for Release 52. As with other town rebuilds, the locations of player lots, merchants, and scene exits has not been changed.

Blood River Forest: Blood River Forest is a Tier 3 adventuring area in the Longfall region, north of Blood River Outskirts. Elves in the region have built a fish hatchery by diverting local waterways. These elves are highly suspicious of all outsiders due to the recent events around Blood River involving vigilante groups. The area also includes the ruins of an ancient stepped pyramid and an abandoned copper strip mine. This scene contains a puzzle that awards the new Invigoration blessing (see New Blessings in Combat Section below for details).

South Boundless Forest: South Boundless Forest is a Tier 3 adventuring area in the North Paladis region far north of Yew, along the road to the Kas Ruins. This forest of ancient redwoods is the site of a major Kobold logging operation that supplies lumber to Kobold locations as far away as K’rul. Stag clan barbarians have set up permanent camps in nearby ruins, once the home of an ancient colosseum from pre-cataclysm times. This scene contains a puzzle that awards the new Tamer blessing (see New Blessings in Combat Section below for details).

Side Quests: (SPOILERS) We added or updated several side quests including the last set of virtue banners!

Bandit Execution: This side quest on the Path of Courage in Resolute sends the player on a quest to kill a bandit leader as payback for taking over Highvale Village. However, deals can be made between like-minded individuals.

Earth Rise Pot: In Brittany Graveyard, Helen’s ghost will offer to make you a special pot in this touching tribute to Lord British’s mother.

Loreley’s Sketchbook: This side quest in Desolis now awards the Banner of Compassion. (Players who already completed this quest can return to Harley Redwool in Desolis and say “hello” for the banner.)

Defeating Cabalists: The Defeating Cabalists side quest (gained from scouts in sieges) now rewards the Banner of Sacrifice. (Players who already completed this quest can return to a scout in any siege and say “hello” to get the banner.)

Find Veimor: This side quest in Braemar that sends you to West Ravenswood now rewards the Banner of Humility. (Players who already completed this quest can return to Bridget Helvig in Braemar and say “hello” for the banner.)

Drumplemouth Disgust: Talking to Natasha about Lord Harcourt Drumplemouth will get her to express her utter disgust and also teach you the /spit emote.

Phuulz Me Once: In the town of Mud, Janni the Weapon Merchant and Jachad the Crafting Merchant are both wearing special, magical hats they say they earned for their bravery and strength. They will point the player to Bopyk, the busy Kobold that camps just outside the northern wall of Mud, if the player wishes to acquire a “pointy tin hat” for themselves. But beware the Phuuzlblarg’s potent gas attack! Getting around it is part of the ultimate challenge for such a special helmet!

Arch Lapin: Rumors abound of the return of this nasty foul creature who can only be slain by the fabled Sacred Orb of Obliteration. Note that avatars who have vanquished the Arch-Lapin in years past are now free to do so again, though they may find it even MORE perilous!

Merchant Flirtin’: Crafting Merchant Timothea has become very friendly, as of late. Even though she and her people have fallen on tough times following the Battle of Solace Bridge, she will flirt with the brave avatars who speak with her in Solace Bridge Outskirts, teaching players the /flirt emote in the process.

Soltown Sweep: Speak with Emma the Barmaid in Soltown’s inn to find out about her special technique in sweeping, keeping her establishment spick & span! Players will learn the coveted /sweep emote.

Gonna Choke a Brat: Highvale Outskirts monastery’s resident brat, Billy, will teach the player the /choking emote if the player can catch him in-between running around and insulting the refugees.

Fading Memories: A forlorn skeleton in the Lost Vale is having trouble remembering his past. Help him regain what he’s lost by successfully completing the “memories” within that area. In the end, you’ll earn the Banner of Ethos (and unlock the ability to re-play each memory with a higher challenge level).

Unlocking Secrets: The tasks picked up in Crooked Shank received a bit of polish, including quest-specific compass markers.

Dare of the Witch: The quest sometimes offered by the children of Harvest has received some polish, including quest-specific compass markers.

Meet Macsen: Lord Macsen’s quest now has received some polish, including the addition of quest-specific compass markers.

Patrator: This quest, which has players leave Aerie to search for a missing elf in South Longfall Wetland, has had conversation and journal improvements, the addition of quest-specific compass markers, changes to improve Patrator’s availability, and other bits of polish.

Caged Elves: The caged elves in South Longfall Wetland have received quite a bit of polish, including improved conversation responses and journals. Also, these elves will re-spawn more frequently and give an experience reward to players who free any elf. (Players who already completed this quest can return to any of these freed elves and say “hello” for the experience reward.)

Miner Issues: The quest from the Broken Echoes steward in Jaanaford has received some polish, namely quest-specific compass markers.

Minstrel’s Horse: The Minstrel’s quest to save Petunia has received some polish, namely quest-specific compass markers.

Grand Tour: The Grand Tour has returned! Visit any automaton wearing a dapper derby to begin. Rumor has it that knowing how to use the lunar rifts will be essential… at least, if you want to earn your own Shardfall Cloak!

Scene Polish:

Water Ripples: Water ripples when avatars move through water will now once again display properly and have been given a visual tune-up.

Water Quality: A pass was made to improve the overall quality of water especially in quality settings below “Beautiful”. This should also address the “Glowing water at night” issue players had reported.

Overworld Movement Speed: We have increased the base movement speed on the overworld (Novia and Hidden Vale) to match the speed of what was formerly only available when coconuts were equipped.

Graff Island: Unique NPCs based on player submissions (as part of backer rewards) have been added to Graff Island.

Resolute: We polished Brigid’s speech on the Path of Courage in the tavern in Resolute with more emotes and we removed her helmet, placing it on the bar.

Lost Vale: Completing the new “Fading Memories” quest in the Lost Vale unlocks the ability for players to engage in more challenging (i.e. “hard mode”) versions of all the memories.

Ruins: Each of the Ruins maps now contains an Ebon Dawn wave battle that results in summoning a powerful Malefic Lich.

More Dragons: Back in Release 44, we created new polished color variations of dragons, but until now only the Red, Yellow, Blue, and Green dragons inhabited the world. In Release 52, we added the neglected dragon types to Grunvald Shardfall (Green, Blue, and Orange), Plains Encounter in Hidden Vale (Purple), Southern Grunvald Barrens (Red and Black), The Rise (Orange), and The Fall (White). Some of these dragons are no longer silent, now taunting you as you die horribly beneath their wings.

Grunvald Shardfall: We added a confusion effect to the central shard and poison generating plants in the crater.

New Key Visuals: We have created unique visuals for different kinds of keys for use in different scenes including Bone, Copper, Gold, Obsidian, Silver, and Steel. You can see these new keys in use in many scenes in the game including Ardoris, Tower of the Shuttered Eye, Longfall Woods, Crooked Shank, Krawl, and many others.

Blood River Massacre: We moved the overarching Path of Truth quest from being optional and on Robert to being mandatory and on Edvard (when requesting the gate be unlocked after finding the bonesteel dagger).

Battle of Solace Bridge: The journal entry to Seek Garridon is now more specific in Garridon’s whereabouts in Solace Bridge Outskirts, informing the player, “He should be down by the river docks, near a small boat.” References as to Garridon being the first guard the player meets has been removed.

Fireplace Fire VFX Polish: We replaced the fire VFX in all the pre-placed fireplaces in the world.

Novia Overworld Polish: We spent time polishing various visual aspects of the overworld map.

Paladis Shardfall and Novia Overworld: The Sanctus and Fortus rivers now have their proper red and blue hues on the overworld and in the Paladis Shardfall.

Blood River: We updated the color of Blood River to its proper red hue

Overworld Islands: We added rocks underneath the islands so they no longer appear to be floating.

Underground POTs: Underground Player Owned Towns now have proper population (how built out the town is) and online indicators for when people are in town (chimney smoke) like above ground POTs do.

Sequanna Colossus: This is now more integrated in the environment and looks more like the statue in the actual scene (i.e. placed high upon elevated terrain).

Desolis: We updated and improved the icon for this town so that it looks more like the scene it represents.

Brittany: We updated the icons for each of the neighborhoods of Brittany (Fields, Estates, Alleys, Wharfs, and Central), as well as for Brittany Graveyard, so that they look more like the scenes they represent.

New In-game Maps: We added several new in-game maps.

Elysium Mines

South Drachvald Spur

Sunless Barrens

Verdantis Mines

Invalid Quests Automatically Fixed: We have added the ability for the game’s journal to automatically recognize when a quest logically has to have been completed (for example, in the main story when the player moves far beyond the incorrectly incomplete quest) and automatically register those quests as completed. This will occur automatically upon logging in and also refresh itself periodically, such as when speaking to any NPC, and should help avatars who have been faithfully testing the game as we develop it and have their quest journal left in an incomplete state as associated bugs have been fixed. Going forward in future releases, if you continue to have quest journal entries that are still “hung” in your journal after having long completed them, please report them as bugs and they will be addressed in the following release.

Task Completion when Looting Fix: We fixed an issue where tasks would not update if you received a task related item when looting stackable items.

Hilt Fortress Access Fix: We fixed an issue that caused the entrance to Hilt Fortress to be noninteractive and show as leading to “Owl’s Head” for partied players that also had quest flags to reassemble the Vermillion Lens as part of the Path of the Oracle questline. These players will now correctly be directed to their party’s instance of Hilt Fortress from Nightshade Pass.

Scene Fixes: We went through many scenes in the game fixing major and minor bugs including conversations, stuck spots, floating assets, missing assets, bad NPC patrols, inaccessible ore nodes, missing collision, audio issues, falling through the world, tree issues, etc. The list includes:

Aerie

Ardoris

Battle of Highvale

Battle of Solace Bridge

Blackblade Pass

Blood Bay

Blood River Massacre

Blood River Outskirts

Braemar

Brittany Central

Brittany Fields

Brittany Graveyard

Broken Echoes Silver Mine

Desolis

Dysborg Ruins

East Longfall Wetland

Elysium Mines

Highvale

Highvale Outskirts

Hills Siege

Kingsport

K’rul

Lost Vale

Middle Downs

Moors of Northshore

Nightshade Pass

Novia

Resolute

Sequanna Colossus

Soltown

South Fetid Swamp

South Midmaer Way

Sunless Barrens

The Rise

Understorm Gold Mine

Yew

Frame Rate Increase: Performance work will focus on improving frame rate and reducing hitching during gameplay.

New Terrain Shader: We have added a new terrain shader to the game and migrated several of our maps to use it. The new shader should result in both improved visuals but also improved performance. The following maps have been moved to the new shader:

South Boundless Forest

Blood River Forest

Northwood

Highvale

Battle of Highvale

Highvale Outskirts

Bloodriver

Bloodriver Massacre

Bloodriver Outskirts

Solace Bridge

Battle of Solace Bridge

Solace Bridge Outskirts

Isle of Storms

Novia Overworld

Blood Bay

Novia

Reduced Memory Allocations: A number of the top memory allocation by frequency spots were addressed. This will result in greater performance and less hitching and stuttering. These improvements will be most noticeable in high stress combat situations.

Libris Ruins: This map received a performance pass and should now run much more smoothly.

Meteor Storm VFX Optimization: The visual effects for this spell were optimized so casting this spell should no longer reduce performance

Names on Brittany Graveyard Tombstones/Domesday Book/Credits Page: Players will be able to select what name they wish to display in these locations via a name entry function on their account page.

Name Entry: In Release 51, we added the ability for eligible players to select the name they wish to display in these locations. This is done using a name entry function on their account page. Eligible players can modify these as much as they wish, but once locked and submitted, they’ll need to purchase a change voucher to modify their submission.

Names on In-Game Brittany Graveyard Tombstones: Eligible players that have submitted their desired names will have it appear on a tombstone in the Brittany Graveyard. Note that this tombstone name will display only after a patch that follows the submission of that name.

Domesday Book: This book is among the shelves somewhere in the library of Castle Brittany. It contains the names that players have chosen to display, and appear in the order that they were submitted by players.

Credits Page: The credits page can now be found on our website and contains our developers, crowdsourcing contributors, and all eligible players. The names displayed are the ones chosen in the name entry form and are displayed alphabetically.

Player Towns & Player Housing: Updates to Dynamic Player-Owned Towns (POTs) that have locked submission forms will start appearing in the game again. Additionally, the globe decoration that replaces the Map Atlas reward will appear in the game. Finally, in-game Lot Deed Raffles will resume.

New Britannia Globe Decoration: This home decoration shows the known world of Novia and Hidden Vale. In the Great Cataclysm, we lost touch with the other continents and explorers have not yet given enough information to globemakers to fill in those areas accurately. NOTE: This replaces the Map Atlas Reward. With the acquisition and implementation of the in-game map system (formerly known as SotAMap) the Map Atlas reward no longer makes any sense because maps will no longer be in-game objects. The existing Map Atlas object that is a container that looks like an atlas and the few maps we made will still remain but they will be collector items.

“Places to Live” Bulletin Boards: We know that home ownership requires a large commitment of either real dollars or in-game gold. This can be quite daunting to new players. However, our game offers other options that many players may not even be aware of, including renting from other players or even free housing offered by generous owners. We want players to be aware of all the alternative housing options besides ownership. We have already added a link to the “Rental Services & Free Places to Live” subforum to all housing and property deed items in the store. In Release 51, we started all players with a “Places to Live” book in their backpacks that also links to this subforum. In Release 52, we have also added Bulletin Boards with links to this subforum in all the starting cities:

Ardoris

Soltown

Jaanaford

Resolute

Aerie

Vertas

Blood Bay Housing: Blood Bay, the PvP island in Spindrift Bay, now has a governor who sometimes makes lots available to players.

Observatory Home: This incredible new Village sized home has an observatory dome on the third floor that rotates and opens to display the large telescope inside. Peering through the telescope reveals the constellations in the sky (much like using the astrolabe or moondials). You can purchase this home from Crown Merchants or for a limited time on the Add-On Store.

Ornate Planting Beds and Pots: For those wanting more thematic decor for their garden or farm, you can now purchase Ornate Viking and Elven themed planting beds and pots from Crown Merchants or the Add-On Store for a limited time.

Craftable Wood & Stone Inn: This in-game craftable version of the Inn features the same layout as the other inns including a ground level floor with a large common room and a single private room (suitable for a kitchen or innkeeper’s room) as well as 3 upper floors that each have 5 rooms (for a total of 16 rentable rooms).

Virtue Banners: The final four virtue banners are in the game and can be earned via sidequests (see Side Quests section above).

Banner of Compassion

Banner of Sacrifice

Banner of Humility

Banner of Ethos

Fireplace Decoration Fire VFX Polish: We replaced the fire VFX in all the fireplace decorations. Note that pre-placed fire VFX in player houses are still using the old fire VFX.

R53 Lot Deed Raffle Tickets: The Lot Deed Raffle returns in Release 52. Raffle tickets can be purchased with in-game gold from home merchants. Each person can only win a single deed of each type (maximum of one place anywhere and one POT). The drawing will occur and winners will be announced in R53.

Place Anywhere Deeds (50):

Row: 20

Village: 15

Town: 10

City: 5

Player-Owned Town Deeds (100):

Row: 40

Village: 30

Town: 20

City: 10

Siege Teleporters Fix: We fixed an issue where you could not travel via teleport between towns when they were under siege.

POT Town Criers Fix: We fixed the dialogue for the town criers that Player-Owned Town governors can place so that they no longer mention the 100 gold reward for visiting the town and instead direct players to the automatically placed town criers instead.

House and Furniture Fixes: Fixed various issues with homes and furniture including places where decorations could not be placed, where stairs could not be climbed without jumping, where furniture could not be used, etc. The list includes:

Crafting & Economy: We will continue adding more loot to the game including unique components for crafting.

Harvesting Resources VFX Polish: Harvestable resources now have a visible “edge glow” that pulses every few seconds. This is true for all ores, reagents, harvestable food (pumpkins & coconuts), cotton, coal, clay, quartz, granite, and crystals.

Offline Crowns for Gold: To support our commitment to offer all “All Store, Pledge, Bundle Items” in Offline Mode you can now purchase Gold Crowns with in-game gold at a highly discounted rate of 2000 gold. NOTE: In Release 53 we will expand the crown merchant’s inventory in Offline Mode to include all the items we have ever had in the store, pledges and in bundles. This will include expired and exclusive items all the way up to Castle Lot Deeds! With the “Offline Crowns for Gold” feature this will fulfill our promised feature of “All Store, Pledge, Bundle Items available for gold in-game”.

Player Vendors Active vs. Idle: Player Vendors that have not been interacted with after 7 days (inventories updated by the owner) will now sit down to indicate this state. This should help customers avoid stale or empty vendors and motivate owners to keep their inventories fresh. Note that the cash registers light up and go dark to simulate the same effect.

Experience Point Rebalance for Crafting: Overall we increased the amount of experience gained from crafting while using all recipes. We especially increased the amount of experience gained when crafting using high level recipes and we also made it so the diminishing returns for crafting at high levels is much less noticeable. On the other end of balance we reduced the experience gained from crafting the Warlock Chain artifact.

Trade Block until Adventuring Level 15: To combat fraud, we are now blocking trade between players until they reach at least adventuring level 15 (which represents a few hours of gameplay).

Potions from Potions: There are now four total recipes for combining smaller potions into bigger potions. There are two for converting lesser to normal (health & focus) and two for converting normal to greater (health & focus). It takes combining 3 potions and fuel in order to gain a potion of next power level, so it still remains more efficient to create the potions from scratch. Recipes will be discoverable and also sold on alchemy merchants.

Potion Alchemy Skill Requirement Balance: When the last sets of potions were added, their Alchemy skill level requirements were all incorrectly set at level 1 instead of having the skill level based on the power of the potion. This has been balanced properly in R52.

Potion of Health, Lesser: 1

Potion of Focus, Lesser: 1

Health Potion: 1

Focus Potion: 1

Cure Plague Potion: 20

Cure Poison Potion: 20

Potion of Focus, Greater: 30

Potion of Health, Greater: 30

Poison Potion, Stinging: 30

Explosive Potion: 30

Haste Potion: 30

Poison Potion, Deadly: 40

Potion of Acumen: 40

Potion of Cat’s Grace: 40

Potion of Deftness: 40

Potion of Wolf Speed: 40

Potion of Might: 40

Potion of Resistance, Elemental: 50

Potion of Focus, Imbued: 50

Potion of Health, Imbued: 50

Potion of Resistance, Magic: 50

Poison Potion, Festering Death: 50

Potion of Regeneration: 50

Potion of Restoration: 50

Poison Potion, Corpion: 60

Poison Potion, Numbing: 60

Poison Potion, Paralyzing Spider Venom: 60

Poison Potion, Chaotic Corruption: 70

Potion of Regeneration, Imbued: 70

Potion of Restoration, Imbued: 70

New Meats: Squirrels and Wild Boars now provide meat for use in recipes in the game (see below).

New Recipes & Patterns:

Female Shopkeepers (4)

Wood & Stone Inn

Salt Cured Pork

Bacon

Squirrel Stew

Squirrel Skewers

Hooded Lich Helm

Obsidian Lich Helm

Founder Cloth Heraldry Chest Piece

Founder Cloth Heraldry Leggings

Founder Leather Heraldry Chest Piece

Founder Leather Heraldry Leggings

Founder Plate Heraldry Chest Piece

Founder Plate Heraldry Leggings

Founder Chain Heraldry Chest Piece

Founder Chain Heraldry Leggings

Founder Metal Heater Shield

Founder Short Banner

Founder Long Banner

Potion of Health from Potion of Health, Lesser

Potion of Focus from Potion of Focus, Lesser

Potion of Health, Greater from Potion of Health

Potion of Focus, Greater from Potion of Focus

Masterwork/Enchantment Fixes: The following items can now be properly Masterworked/Enchanted.

Brown Fur Hat Fix

Life Attunement Ring

New Unique Components Delayed: We chose to focus on Companions, potions, and combat balance which delayed adding more unique components to loot.

User Interface Polish: We will provide more feedback about locations on the compass and map for quests, services, points of interest, etc.

Quest Indicators for Nested Scenes: We have updated the quest indicators so that they will now work if the target is inside a scene within another scene. For example, if your task was sending you to the Kas Vault underneath Kas Ruins and you were standing on the Overworld your indicator would not have worked properly before.

Online Matchmaking Mode Renaming: We renamed the “Friends” matchmaking mode to “Party,” and renamed the “Single Player” matchmaking mode to “Private,” in order to better indicate the function of those modes. In the process, we dropped “Online” from all of these names since that was redundant considering they were modes only accessed in Online.

Crown Merchant Compass Icon: In order to make it easier to find Crown Merchants in the game, we created a custom compass icon for Crown Merchants.

Early Access Watermark & Warnings Removed: We have removed the Early Access watermark and warnings from the game now that we have moved out of that stage of development.

“Item Preview” on Crown Merchants: In an effort to supply more information about an item when shopping at a Crown Merchant, you can now get an “Item Preview” on many listed game assets that shows a “close up” 3D view of the item. We will continue to improve this system to allow display of more types of items, and we will also add in-depth descriptions to be displayed along with the new visuals.

Bundle Visibility on Store: Bundle visibility on the store is now controlled by how much you have spent. For instance, after you purchase game access, you are able to view the first three bundles of all bundle themes.

PvP Messages in Offline Removed: We have removed the messages and user interface windows related to PvP that appear when entering PvP areas in Offline Mode since they are irrelevant and immersion breaking in that mode.

Attunement Number on Skill Tree: When we changed fonts, the attunement number was accidentally put on the wrong layer. This caused it to sort behind the attunement icon and make it impossible to read. We have fixed this and the attunement number once again properly sorts on top of the attunement icon.

Timestamps in Chat Log: We added timestamps to the chat logs that can be enabled by a checkbox in the interface options.

Saturation: We adjusted where the default saturation level starts and we also adjusted the saturation curves so that when you change your saturation levels you do not change the hues as drastically as before.

Multiple Characters: Eligible players will now be able to have multiple characters on a single account. Note that these characters will share virtue and will have a common bank account. Characters will also share guild membership and land ownership ( including lot access permissions and rentals).

Multiple Characters (Online): Players who are eligible for Multiple Characters will now receive the appropriate number of extra character slots. NOTE: We intend to provide future opportunities to purchase extra slots from the Add-On Store as individual purchases.

Physical Manual: Denis Loubet continues to produce the illustrations for the manual.

Tinkerer Certificate and Lot Deeds: The physical version of your in-game lot deed and tinkerer certificate can be framed and mounted on the wall just like your in-game house!

Runic Card: Our version of the “Rosetta Stone” helps you translate Runic to English. On the reverse side is a quick keyboard commands reference card.

Shipping Delayed: We have decided to take a little longer to make the physical goods source materials as well as spend a little more time prototyping the prints of them in order to make sure they match our, and your, expectations of a Lord British product. As you might have seen in the Release 51 Postmortem Physical Goods deep dive, we believe we are definitely reaching that goal. Unfortunately, it has caused a slight delay in shipping which will now begin in Q2.

English and Russian: The interface text and quest dialogue for English and Russian are complete.

Other Languages In Progress: Our other languages are still in progress and we anticipate completion in Q2.

Heraldry: Players will be able to create heraldry through a blazon system (or direct image upload) that can be displayed on shields, tabard chest pieces, and banners in game.

Heraldry Account Redemption: Players that are eligible for the “Custom Family Crest” reward can now go to a link in the “Special Rewards” section of their account page and either upload a custom image or use the device generator to create their family crest. Stay tuned for more details on blazon submission. NOTE: We plan to open up Heraldry to more players in the future for a fee, but the heraldry items they will be able to place their crests on will be visually distinct from the founder versions.

Heraldry Blazon Device Generator: Thanks to the hard work of the College of Arms, we have adopted a version of their Heraldry Blazon Device Generator that players can use to generate a family crest to display on chest armor, shields, and banners. Blazons created using the generator will not require approval before being available in the game.

Custom Image Submission: Players who wish to submit a custom image instead of using the device generator can do so, but please note that the image must look like traditional heraldry and it will be reviewed before appearing in the game, so there will be a delay before it appears.

Heraldry Patterns: Each heraldry item will come as a fully usable item with an eternal pattern embedded inside that can be salvaged to be applied to other items. The eternal pattern is what is linked to the heraldry blazon and what determines what device is displayed. When you craft an item, the crafter’s blazon is what is displayed on the item.

Founder Heraldry Armor

Founder Cloth Heraldry Chest Piece

Founder Cloth Heraldry Leggings

Founder Leather Heraldry Chest Piece

Founder Leather Heraldry Leggings

Founder Plate Heraldry Chest Piece

Founder Plate Heraldry Leggings

Founder Chain Heraldry Chest Piece

Founder Chain Heraldry Leggings

Founder Metal Heater Shield

Founder Heraldry Banners

Founder Short Banner

Founder Long Banner

Teleport to Friend Polish: We polished the matchmaking code involved with the teleport function so that players should now always end up in the same instance instead of getting sorted into separate instances.

Combat & Skills:

New Blessings: We created nine new “reward blessings” for use in adventuring areas that contain challenging puzzles and/or repeatable content, giving players extra reasons to revisit those areas. Five of these will be available in Release 52. NOTE: These are not new devotional blessings for POTs and towns but pre-placed blessings in adventure scenes.

Blessing of Acquisition: Gives a 50% learning speed boost. (Like the potion, but 1/6th the effect). Found in Lost Vale.

Blessing of Invigoration: 10% Heal modifier boost. (This will make all heals and regeneration give you 10% more and will also work to counter effects that apply negative heal modifiers.). Found in Blood River Forest.

Blessing of Maintenance: 25% reduction to damage taken to weapons, armor, and shields. Found in Elysium Mines.

Blessing of Tamer: Adds 10 levels to your pet. Found in South Boundless Forest.

Blessing of Elusiveness: +20 dodge and -20 Damage Avoidance. (The idea being that it moves glancing blows to be misses BUT for a small set of people with low DA, could be pretty powerful.) Not yet available.

Blessing of Elemental Tolerance: +20 resistance and -10 attunement to earth, air, fire, water. (Players will be less effective with these spells BUT will have a net 15 point boost to these resistances.) Not yet available.

Blessing of Magic Tolerance: +20 resistance and -10 attunement to sun, moon, life, death. (Players will be less effective with these spells BUT will have a net 15 point boost to these resistances.) Not yet available.

Valiant Warden: This new Heavy Armor active skill allows you to target another party member and you will take a percentage of the damage they receive for some amount of time. Multiple players can use this on the same target and spread the damage even more.

Chaos Shield: This protective buff generates a random effect and is possibly one of the most unique and powerful spells in the game!

Forget a Skill: Skills can now be forgotten when they are at or below level 20 and the player does not know any of the child skills in the skill tree. Those stuck with some skills at 80 because they wanted to experiment with various Specializations will now have a way to completely unlearn the specialization so they can untrain the child skill!

Unlearning a Skill: Skills can now be set to Unlearn even if they have not yet met their parent skill level requirement. Previously, skills required meeting their expected parent level requirement for child skills, even if the child skill had not been learned yet, before they could be set to Unlearn.

Multiple Deck Swapping with Hotkeys: You can now assign up to 10 combat decks for quick swapping with ALT 0–9.

Sixth Glyph in Decks: Players who have specialized a skill to 80 can now build decks with a 6th glyph. Previously this would appear to work but then be lost upon logging out.

Malefic Liches: These high level Liches can be found only in the Ruins maps. If defeated, they may drop Hooded Lich Helms which can worn or salvaged for a chance to yield patterns.

Obsidian Lich: The Obsidian version of the Lich uses Chaos Magic (like Daemons). If defeated, they may drop Obsidian Lich Helms which can worn or salvaged for a chance to yield patterns.

Dragon Wing Gust: Dragons now have a new wing gust attack that generates an area effect push (similar to the Troll kick).

Dragon Damage Balance: Data associated with the various dragons in the game has been cleaned up so that the damage spread is better balanced across the different difficulty tiers of dragons.

Backstab and Attacks From Behind Balance: Previously, attacks from behind would double the crit chance in addition to bypassing many defensive skills. This has been changed to not affect the critical chance but instead do a flat bonus on all attacks (critical hits included) that is based on a new Backstab passive skill in the subterfuge tree. (Note:Trainers might not train this skill until after the first patch)

Death Shield Balance: Due to the extreme power of this spell and its extensive use by all casters and melee types it received a balance change for R52. Positive effects remain unchanged but it now also comes with a 25% healing debuff.

VFX Additions and Polish: Once again, we spent time polishing the visual effects for various magic spells and adding effects where they were missing including the following:

Blink

Chaotic Clone

Chaotic Shield

Dig In

Kobold Weapon Electrical Effects

Reveal Hidden

NPC Attack Animation Polish: Combat animations have been updated for unique weapon types used by Satyrs, Kobolds, and Cabalists for Release 52.

Party Roll Loot Rules: Release 52 introduces some new features for the Roll Loot party loot setting. The maximum value threshold for party Roll Loot filters has been increased from 1000 to 5000. Also, both Roll & Pass buttons can be bound to hotkeys from the Options menu.

Enemy Experience Point Reward Balance: Many of the higher tier creatures were rewarding much too low experience for their difficulty so we did a pass through the game and rebalanced this to better reward players who face off against these very challenging opponents.

Clockwork Dog

Clockwork Cat

Automaton Assassin

Obsidian Troll

Torc’Dawl the Broken

Elite Obsidian Troll

Cabalists

Elven Warrior

Elven Archer

Elven Elite Fighter

Elven Sharpshooter

Elite Elven Mage

Elven Archmage

Elf Fighter

Dragon

Hem-Sareed Ghairmute

Tungaruth Ghairmute

Gian’re Ghairmute

Berserker

Drakserker

Berkaller

Drakaller

Water Elemental

Dolorast Vrul

Tharsis Vrul

User Input upon Scene Arrival: We shortened the amount of time we wait to allow user input after you first appear in a scene so that you can move almost immediately upon arrival.

Ring of Fire Fix: Ring of Fire should now properly provide the fire resistance debuff.

Companions: We created custom art for the three companions: Conrad Dupre (Courage), Ariel Rosehaven (Truth), and Fiona Fitzowen (Love). This work included creating custom armor, faces, and weapons for all three.

Female Shopkeepers: Much like the Male Shopkeepers that we added in Release 51, these player vendor outfits are based on Victorian shopkeeper wear and early concept sketches Denis Loubet made. They come in several outfit colors and face options. These can be purchased in the Add-On Store as fully functional vendors or patterns.

Farm Animal Emotes: Tamed Pigs, Sheep, Horses, Cows, and Chickens can now all sit and dance. Commence the barnyard hoedown!

Pets and Servants Animating on Lots: When the owner’s away the pets will play! Pets and servants will now animate and move when the owner is not present on player lots instead of just staying still like statues.

Obsidian Lich: This variation of our lich has darker armor and a darker cloak.

Hooded Lich Helm: This new plate helm can be gained by defeating the Malefic Liches found in Ruins.

Obsidian Lich Helm: This darker variant of the Lich Helm can be gained by defeating the Obsidian Lich.

Head Tracking for Dogs & Wolves: Canines in our game now take advantage of our head tracking technology.

Tin Foil Hat: This amazing helmet is rumored to protect the wearer from all sorts of “rays.” You can obtain the helmet from the Phuulz quest (see Side Quests section above).

Shardfall Cloak: In honor of the new Quel Shardfall, we created a new shardfall symbol and put it on a cloak. This cloak can be obtained by going on the Grand Tour (see Side Quests section above).

Arch Lapin Mask: This rougher version of the Spring 2018 Lepus mask can be earned by completing the Arch Lapin quest.

Clasped Gauntlet Community Cloaks: We created two cloaks to support community events this release:

Launch Event Community Cloak

The Syndicate 22nd Anniversary Community Cloak

Localization Cloaks: We created custom cloaks to recognize the outstanding efforts of our crowdsourcing localization teams. They both use the the bookseller symbol of a pile of books.

Scribe Cloak

Royal Scrivener Cloak

Emotes:

/spit: This disgusting emote is earned by talking to Natasha in the tavern in Aerie.

/guard and torches: You can now hold torches (including the new Flambeaux) when using the /guard emote.

/flirt: This flirtatious emote, that includes a twinkle in the eye, is earned by talking to Timothea in Solace Bridge Outskirts.

/choke: Billy the brat in Highvale Outskirts will teach players this violent emote.

/sweep: Emma the barmaid in Soltown will teach players this cleaning emote.

/scratchhead: All players now start with this confused emote.

Piano Stand Up Fix: We fixed a visual issue when standing up from playing the piano where the player would appear to sit back down in the air momentarily.

Stand Up to Move Fix: We fixed an issue where players who were sitting would stand up and start moving would appear to stay seated but still move. Now they properly transition between sitting to standing to moving.

Obsidian Troll Animation Fixes: We fixed some issues related to the speed of movement and animations.

Flute Missing Octaves Fix: We fixed the issue where the flute was missing some octaves so it should sound better when playing songs now.

Head Tracking for Children: We fixed an issue that was preventing head tracking working for children NPCs. So now they can look up at the faces of adults when talking to them.

Gear Fixes:

Nurse Blouse

Community Cloaks: several were accidentally set to be dyeable

Gambeson Leggings

Virtue Dirndl Shoes

Elven Elite Mage Robes

Clan of the Bear Bracers

Equipment Decorations: Many missed equipment pieces have now been set up as decorations. We also fixed a few bugs where some of these were not displaying properly. These include:

Sacred Orb of Obliteration

Torn and Tattered Wedding Dress

Ornate Floral Kimono

Gentlemen’s Admiral Outfit (made to not lie flat)

Gentlemen’s Riding Outfit (made to not lie flat)

Ladies’ Admiral Outfit (made to not lie flat)

Ladies’ Riding Outfit (made to not lie flat)

Elite Elven Mage Robe (made to not lie flat)

Ardoris Shogun Outfit (made to not lie flat)

Ardoris Priestess Robe (made to not lie flat)

Kimono (made to not lie flat)

Torn Wedding Dress (made to not lie flat)

Torn Wedding Tuxedo (made to not lie flat)

Wealthy Merchant Outfit (made to not lie flat)

Gaudy Vile Spear

Indignant Vile Halberd

Dastardly Vile Sword

Ornate Vile Mace

Audio: We’ve started (and will continue) recording new voices for humanoid exertions and have begun the process of adding them to various locations. For conversations and barks, the “languages” will be simulated to avoid localization issues. For R52, the following vocalizations have been updated:

Avatar male and female emotes

NPC exertions (in progress)

Postmortem, Seasonal, and Make a Difference Items

Release 50 Postmortem Items: We have completed all the stretch goal rewards from the R50 Postmortem that were Mardi Gras/Carnivale themed. For everyone who is eligible, the following items should appear in your bank for claiming in Release 52. You can see if you are eligible in your Account page on the Special Rewards tab: if so, it says “Release 50 Telethon Rewards.”

/samba: This sexy dance is sure to be a hit at the next dance party.

Mardi Gras Fountain: The mardi gras fountain features masks and the colors of mardi gras.

Mardi Gras Garlands: The mardi gras garland set features masks and the colors of Mardi Gras.

Flambeaux: The flambeaux is a large quadruple torch. As a bonus we also created two emotes that can be used when the flambeaux is equipped: /flambeauxspin and /flambeauxtoss

Spring 2018 Content: The following Spring 2018 rare items will expire on May 4, 2018.

2018 Lepus Mask: The 2018 version of the lepus mask has an angular style and is black with gold highlights.

2018 Easter Basket: Replenishes confetti eggs annually that can be thrown at other players.

Helen Garriott Skylab Dish (Make a Difference): This decorative item is a replica of a ceramic art piece done by Richard Garriott’s late mother and literally the mother of Ultima—Helen Garriott. Helen was an artist who drew the first cover of Akalabeth, which many consider Ultima 0. When her sons Robert & Richard formed Origin, she became Origin’s first Art Director. She manually laid out all of the early manuals, having drawn many of the illustrations found within, and also created the map for Ultima III. Helen was also an investor in Origin. Using funds acquired from that investment, she envisioned and created Leonardo’s Discovery Warehouse in the community of Enid, Oklahoma, where she grew up. She believed that inspiring children in art and science was supremely important. Leonardo’s stands as a monument to her vision and the way she lived her life, and is accepting donations in Helen’s memory. A portion of the proceeds of the sale of this digital item will go to Leonardo’s. “…I share the hope that through the vehicle of an arts and sciences center (Leonardo’s Discovery Warehouse) we can excite both the excellent student and the struggling or unmotivated student in the adventure of discovery, raise self esteem and turn them on to the fun of a productive life.” —Helen Garriott

Developer Level+ Asset Packs: This month, we provided an asset pack containing the Cabalists, another that contained the various Wild Boars, and a third containing Norgard guards and barbarians.

We are so excited that Episode 1 is moving out of Early Access and is now going to be in full Live mode! Each month we will continue to provide you updates that will contain new content, new features, polish, bug fixes, balance changes, and more! Later this week, we will be providing the Q2 2018 Schedule Update which will outline what each monthly release will contain for the second quarter, including Looking for Group, Castle Defense Scenarios, more loot, more recipes, Brewing, more scene rebuilds, performance work, and much more!

As a reminder here are links to Player Instructions and Known Issues. Thank you again for your continued support. This is truly the most amazing community we have ever worked with, and we are proud to be on this journey with you.

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